Nirbhay Kumar

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Bio

Nirbhay Kumar, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Global Health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Dr. Kumar also holds an appointment as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Tropical Medicine at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Dr. Kumar graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi with Ph.D. in Biochemistry and is currently engaged in research on the development of a vaccine to stop malaria transmission. He received advanced research training in cell biology, immunology and vaccinology of malaria as a post-doctoral fellow and visiting associate at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda. He then joined the faculty of the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and continued there from 1986-2009 as Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and Deputy Director of Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. Prior to joining the Department of Global Health, Dr. Kumar served as William G. Vincent Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Tropical Medicine, and Director of a Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases Research Centre at Tulane University, New Orleans.

He has trained and mentored more than 50 graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty during his professional career at Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute and Tulane University. As PI of a Global Infectious Diseases (GID) Training Grant (Fogarty International Center, NIH) for more than 12 years, he actively worked towards capacity building in developing countries via several workshops and mentored training of students and public health professional. Dr. Kumar was elected fellow of the, American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) in 2007, American Academy of Microbiology (AAM) in 2012 and American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH) in 2015.

Expertise

Expertise:

Infectious Disease

Prevention

Global Health

Immunology

Vaccinology

Education:

Ph.D. (Biochemistry) – All India Institute of Medical sciences, New Delhi, India

Sc.M. (Biochemistry) – Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

Sc.B. (Chemistry, Physics, Math) – Agra University, Agra, India

Teaching:

Graduate level courses at JHU (Biology of Parasitism and Malariology)

Graduate level courses at Tulane (Immunology and Immunoparasitology)

Community Service:

1980 -	Life Member, Indian Immunology Society
1981 - 1992	Member, American Society for Cell and Developmental Biology
1986 -	Reviewer, J. Immunol., J.Inf.Dis., Inf and Imm., GENE, Mol. Biochem. Parasitol., Exp. Parasitol., Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., Exp. Parasitol., Parasitol. Res., Mol. Cell. Probes, J. Euk. Microbiol., Cutting Edge., MBP, PNAS, Nature, Science
1986 -	Member / adhoc reviewer (>6 dozen), NIH, USAID, WHO, AIBS, MIDRP, MRSP, CDC, MRC, Wellcomme Trust
1988 -	Member, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
1989 -	Member, American Society of Microbiology
1989 - 1990	Temporary Advisor and Co-opted Member, WHO-TDR-IMMAL
1991 - 1997	Member, American Association of Immunologists
1992 - 1994	Member, Department of Biotechnology (Govt. India) Advisory Board
2002 - 2004	Specialist Editor and Editor of two thematic Issues, Int. J. Parasitology
2002 - 2004	Chair, Military Infectious Disease Research- Malaria Vaccine Panel (AIBS)
2002 - 2005	Regular Member, TMP (PTHE)-NIAID
2003 - 2005	Member, American Society for Parasitologists
2005 - 2009	Member, ASM - International Award Committee
2006 - 2014	Member, AAAS
2006 - 2008	Member, Scientific Advisory Committee, NIAID - MR4
2007 -	Associate Editor, Open Tropical medicine, J. Parasitol. research
2008 -	Editorial Board Member, Current Genetics
2009 -	Member Editorial Board, Infection & Immunity
2010 -	Academic Editor, PLOS ONE
2011 -	Member Scientific Advisory Group, NIAID-ICEMR (Southern Africa, Malawi, Amazonian)
2011 -	Chair, Travel Awards Committee, ASTMH

Honors

2000	Advising, Mentoring,Teaching & Research Award, BSPH-JHU
2002	Outstanding Research Paper, JHU-Applied Physics Lab
2002	R.W.Hartl Prize for Excellence in Independent Research, JHU-Applied Physics Labs
2002	Life Science Inventions of the Year, JHU-Applied Physics Labs
2003	McGhee Memorial Lecture, American Society of Parasitologists
2003	Keynote Lecture and Co-Host, MR4 International Bioinformatics Workshop
2003	Dean's Lecture- Grand Rounds, BSPH-JHU
2004	Indo-US Visiting Professor, ASM
2005	Medical Science Award, Ranbaxy Science Foundation
2007	Opening Plenary Lecture, International Primate Center, Nairobi
2007	Fellow, American Assn. Advancement of Sciences (AAAS)
2008	Invited International Speaker, Gairdner Foundation, Canada
2012	Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology (AAM)
2015	Plenary Speaker, Malaria Day Symposium-Univ. Miss.
2015	Fellow, American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH)

Research

Research:

A primary focus of research in the Kumar lab has been in the area of Immunobiology of Malaria Transmission. Research in Dr. Kumar’s lab has played a critical role in the development and wider acceptance of the concept of malaria transmission blocking vaccine to its present state as a key vaccine approach to achieve elimination and / or global eradication of malaria. In addition, Dr. Kumar has also led several collaborative International research projects on immunology of malaria, pre-clinical evaluation of vaccines and co-infections with other neglected tropical parasites in Colombia, Kenya, Rwanda, India, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Dr. Kumar's current interests are on the development of a vaccine to stop transmission of human malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. Understanding mechanisms of sexual differentiation of Plasmodium and interaction with the anopheline mosquito vector guide the rational design of vaccines targeting the transmission process. Current focus of these vaccine studies includes: (1) recombinant expression of vaccine antigens, (2) optimization of immune responses of vaccine antigens formulated with various adjuvants including nanosomes and nanoparticles, (3) development of DNA vaccine combinations to interrupt malaria transmission, and (4) understanding immune correlates of vaccine efficacy and safety.

In other studies, he is also investigating DNA damage response mechanisms in Plasmodium, especially during exposure to anti-malarial drugs such as artemisinin. Another growing interest (animal models and field studies) of the Kumar lab is to investigate parasitologic and immune interactions during malaria and helminth coinfections.

Publications

Publications:

Dr. Kumar has published more than 190 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and has delivered numerous invited talks at various national and international scientific meetings, universities and research institutions all over the world. Recent publications in the last 5 years are listed below. Please view Complete List of Published Work in My Bibliography:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1pmrQ2woR8okU/bibliography/42419139/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending

Functional Conservation of P48/45 Proteins in the Transmission Stages of Plasmodium vivax (Human Malaria Parasite) and P. berghei (Murine Malaria Parasite). Cao Y, Hart RJ, Bansal GP, Kumar N. mBio. 2018; 9(5).
Immune Response in Malaria Transmission. Bansal GP, Kumar N. Current Clinical Microbiology Reports. 2018 January 22; :1-7.
Comparative functional potency of DNA vaccines encoding Plasmodium falciparum transmission blocking target antigens Pfs48/45 and Pfs25 administered alone or in combination by in vivo electroporation in rhesus macaques. Datta D, Bansal GP, Grasperge B, Martin DS, Philipp M, Gerloff D, Ellefsen B, Hannaman D, Kumar N. Vaccine. 2017; 35(50):7049-7056.

Modulation of transmission success of Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes (sexual stages) in various species of Anopheles by erythrocytic asexual stage parasites. Kumar N. Acta Tropica. 2017; 176:263-269.
Functional characterization of malaria parasites deficient in the K⁺ channel Kch2. Ellekvist P, Mlambo G, Kumar N, Klaerke DA. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 2017; 493(1):690-696.
Impact of the Charge Ratio on the In Vivo Immunogenicity of Lipoplexes. Heidari Z, Arora JS, Datta D, John VT, Kumar N, Bansal GP. Pharmaceutical Research. 2017; 34(9):1796-1804.
Multifunctional Involvement of a C2H2 Zinc Finger Protein (PbZfp) in Malaria Transmission, Histone Modification, and Susceptibility to DNA Damage Response. Gopalakrishnan AM, Aly ASI, Aravind L, Kumar N. mBio. 2017; 8(4).
Enhanced Adhesion of Mosquitoes to Rough Surfaces. Pashazanusi L, Lwoya B, Oak S, Khosla T, Albert JNL, Tian Y, Bansal G, Kumar N, Pesika NS. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 2017; 9(28):24373-24380.
Antibodies elicited during natural infection in a predominantly Plasmodium falciparum transmission area cross-react with sexual stage-specific antigen in P. vivax. Bansal GP, Vengesai A, Cao Y, Mduluza T, Kumar N. Acta Tropica. 2017; 170:105-111.
Immunogenicity and malaria transmission reducing potency of Pfs48/45 and Pfs25 encoded by DNA vaccines administered by intramuscular electroporation. Datta D, Bansal GP, Gerloff DL, Ellefsen B, Hannaman D, Kumar N. Vaccine. 2017; 35(2):264-272.
Integrating transcriptomic and proteomic data for accurate assembly and annotation of genomes. Prasad TS, Mohanty AK, Kumar M, Sreenivasamurthy SK, Dey G, Nirujogi RS, Pinto SM, Madugundu AK, Patil AH, Advani J, Manda SS, Gupta MK, Dwivedi SB, Kelkar DS, Hall B, Jiang X, Peery A, Rajagopalan P, Yelamanchi SD, Solanki HS, Raja R, Sathe GJ, Chavan S, Verma R, Patel KM, Jain AP, Syed N, Datta KK, Khan AA, Dammalli M, Jayaram S, Radhakrishnan A, Mitchell CJ, Na CH, Kumar N, Sinnis P, Sharakhov IV, Wang C, Gowda H, Tu Z, Kumar A, Pandey A. Genome Research. 2017; 27(1):133-144.
Molecular Markers of Radiation Induced Attenuation in Intrahepatic Plasmodium falciparum Parasites. Oakley MS, Verma N, Zheng H, Anantharaman V, Takeda K, Gao Y, Myers TG, Pham PT, Mahajan B, Kumar N, Sangweme D, Tripathi AK, Mlambo G, Aravind L, Kumar S. PloS one. 2016; 11(12):e0166814.
Molecular surveillance of Plasmodium falciparum drug resistance markers reveals partial recovery of chloroquine susceptibility but sustained sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine resistance at two sites of different malaria transmission intensities in Rwanda. Kateera F, Nsobya SL, Tukwasibwe S, Hakizimana E, Mutesa L, Mens PF, Grobusch MP, van Vugt M, Kumar N. Acta Tropica. 2016; 164:329-336.
The Right Stand by ASM regarding Journal Impact Factors. Kumar N, Bansal GP. Infection and Immunity. 2016; 84(12):3655.
Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum transmission reducing immunity among primary school children in a malaria moderate transmission region in Zimbabwe. Paul NH, Vengesai A, Mduluza T, Chipeta J, Midzi N, Bansal GP, Kumar N. Acta Tropica. 2016; 163:103-8.
Reduced immunogenicity of Plasmodium falciparum gamete surface antigen (Pfs48/45) in mice after disruption of disulphide bonds - evaluating effect of interferon-γ-inducible lysosomal thiol reductase. Merino KM, Bansal GP, Kumar N. Immunology. 2016; 148(4):433-47.
Immunological Cross-Reactivity between Malaria Vaccine Target Antigen P48/45 in Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum and Cross-Boosting of Immune Responses. Cao Y, Bansal GP, Merino K, Kumar N. PloS One. 2016; 11(7):e0158212.
Insight into phagocytosis of mature sexual (gametocyte) stages of Plasmodium falciparum using a human monocyte cell line. Bansal GP, Weinstein CS, Kumar N. Acta Tropica. 2016; 157:96-101.
Malaria case clinical profiles and Plasmodium falciparum parasite genetic diversity: a cross sectional survey at two sites of different malaria transmission intensities in Rwanda. Kateera F, Nsobya SL, Tukwasibwe S, Mens PF, Hakizimana E, Grobusch MP, Mutesa L, Kumar N, van Vugt M. Malaria Journal. 2016; 15:237.
Transdermal Diagnosis of Malaria Using Vapor Nanobubbles. Lukianova-Hleb E, Bezek S, Szigeti R, Khodarev A, Kelley T, Hurrell A, Berba M, Kumar N, D'Alessandro U, Lapotko D. Emerging infectious diseases. 2016; 22(2):344.
Pooled Amplicon Deep Sequencing of Candidate Plasmodium falciparum Transmission-Blocking Vaccine Antigens. Juliano JJ, Parobek CM, Brazeau NF, Ngasala B, Randrianarivelojosia M, Lon C, Mwandagalirwa K, Tshefu A, Dhar R, Das BK, Hoffman I, Martinson F, Mårtensson A, Saunders DL, Kumar N, Meshnick SR. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 2016; 94(1):143-6.
Potent Functional Immunogenicity of Plasmodium falciparum Transmission-Blocking Antigen (Pfs25) Delivered with Nanoemulsion and Porous Polymeric Nanoparticles. Kumar R, Ledet G, Graves R, Datta D, Robinson S, Bansal GP, Mandal T, Kumar N. Pharmaceutical Research. 2015; 32(12):3827-36.
Nanovaccines for malaria using Plasmodium falciparum antigen Pfs25 attached gold nanoparticles. Kumar R, Ray PC, Datta D, Bansal GP, Angov E, Kumar N. Vaccine. 2015; 33(39):5064-71.
Evaluation of the Impact of Codon Optimization and N-Linked Glycosylation on Functional Immunogenicity of Pfs25 DNA Vaccines Delivered by In Vivo Electroporation in Preclinical Studies in Mice. Datta D, Bansal GP, Kumar R, Ellefsen B, Hannaman D, Kumar N. Clinical and Vaccine Immunology : CVI. 2015; 22(9):1013-9.
Transdermal Diagnosis of Malaria Using Vapor Nanobubbles. Lukianova-Hleb E, Bezek S, Szigeti R, Khodarev A, Kelley T, Hurrell A, Berba M, Kumar N, D'Alessandro U, Lapotko D. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2015; 21(7):1122-7.
Patterns of mixed Plasmodium species infections among children six years and under in selected malaria hyper-endemic communities of Zambia: population-based survey observations. Sitali L, Chipeta J, Miller JM, Moonga HB, Kumar N, Moss WJ, Michelo C. BMC Infectious Diseases. 2015; 15:204.
Antimalarial action of artesunate involves DNA damage mediated by reactive oxygen species. Gopalakrishnan AM, Kumar N. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 2015; 59(1):317-25.
Brain proteomics of Anopheles gambiae. Dwivedi SB, Muthusamy B, Kumar P, Kim MS, Nirujogi RS, Getnet D, Ahiakonu P, De G, Nair B, Gowda H, Prasad TS, Kumar N, Pandey A, Okulate M. Omics: a Journal of Integrative Biology. 2014; 18(7):421-37.
Potent malaria transmission-blocking antibody responses elicited by Plasmodium falciparum Pfs25 expressed in Escherichia coli after successful protein refolding. Kumar R, Angov E, Kumar N. Infection and Immunity. 2014; 82(4):1453-9.
Encyclopedia of Malaria. Gopalakrishnan AM., Kumar N. M H, P K, editors. US: Springer; 2014. DNA damage and repair in Plasmodium; p.1-8.
Encyclopedia of Malaria. Gopalakrishnan AM. Kumar N M H, P K, editors. US: Springer; 2014. DNA Replication and Recombination in Plasmodium
Identification of biochemically distinct properties of the small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) conjugation pathway in Plasmodium falciparum. Reiter K, Mukhopadhyay D, Zhang H, Boucher LE, Kumar N, Bosch J, Matunis MJ. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2013; 288(39):27724-36.
Detection and species identification of malaria parasites by isothermal tHDA amplification directly from human blood without sample preparation. Li Y, Kumar N, Gopalakrishnan A, Ginocchio C, Manji R, Bythrow M, Lemieux B, Kong H. The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics: JMD. 2013; 15(5):634-41.
Functional evaluation of malaria Pfs25 DNA vaccine by in vivo electroporation in olive baboons. Kumar R, Nyakundi R, Kariuki T, Ozwara H, Nyamongo O, Mlambo G, Ellefsen B, Hannaman D, Kumar N. Vaccine. 2013; 31(31):3140-7.
A compendium of molecules involved in vector-pathogen interactions pertaining to malaria. Sreenivasamurthy SK, Dey G, Ramu M, Kumar M, Gupta MK, Mohanty AK, Harsha HC, Sharma P, Kumar N, Pandey A, Kumar A, Prasad TS. Malaria Journal. 2013; 12:216.
Opposing roles for two molecular forms of replication protein A in Rad51-Rad54-mediated DNA recombination in Plasmodium falciparum. Gopalakrishnan AM, Kumar N. mBio. 2013; 4(3):e00252-13.
A chemiluminescent-western blot assay for quantitative detection of Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein. Kumar S, Zheng H, Sangweme DT, Mahajan B, Kozakai Y, Pham PT, Morin MJ, Locke E, Kumar N. Journal of Immunological Methods. 2013; 390(1-2):99-105.
Novel nanosomes for gene delivery to Plasmodium falciparum-infected red blood cells. Gopalakrishnan AM, Kundu AK, Mandal TK, Kumar N. Scientific Reports. 2013; 3:1534.